Reigning Asian Tour Order of Merit champion John Catlin leads a field stacked with world-class talent at this week’s New Zealand Open presented by Sky Sport.

The tournament has attracted one of the strongest fields in its history, with the American joined by defending champion Takahiro Hataji from Japan, and New Zealand’s Ben Campbell – runner-up on last year’s Merit list.

The NZ$2million (approximately US$1.48million) tournament tees off at Millbrook Resort in Queenstown on Thursday and is co-sanctioned by the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia and the Asian Tour, in partnership with the Japan Golf Tour. The event, which is now in its 104^th year, features a popular Pro-Am format.

New Zealand’s Nick Voke, winner of the Webex Players Series Sydney at the weekend, is also in the field, along with Scott Hend from Australia, last year’s runner-up. Hend three-putted the 18^th last year to hand victory to Hataji – who made history by becoming the first player from Japan to win the event.

Ben Campbell. Picture by Paul Lakatos/Asian Tour.

Asian Tour stars Hong Kong’s Taichi Kho, Miguel Tabuena from the Philippines, Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond and American MJ Maguire plus Japan’s Takumi Murakami, who won the Qualifying School, have all made the trip, for the third stop of the season on the Asian Tour.

LIV Golf stars Lucas Herbert from Australia and New Zealander Danny Lee, plus Japan legend Ryo Ishikawa are also competing, along with Australian Brad Kennedy, a two-time winner of the event in 2011 and 2020.

Other former winners here are Brendan Jones (2023) from Australia, Kiwi Michael Hendry (2017), plus Australians Zach Murray (2019), Daniel Nisbet (2108), Matthew Griffin (2016) and Jordan Zunic (2015).

Pakistan’s Ahmad Baig, winner of the ADT Rumanza Open Pakistan last week on the Asian Development Tour, is also in the field – after a lengthy journey from Punjab, central Pakistan.

Both of Millbrook Resort’s Coronet and Remarkables Courses are being used this week. The final two rounds will be played on a composite course including holes from both courses.

The tournament boasts a field of 156 amateurs and 156 professionals playing alongside one another.  The professionals will compete for the New Zealand Open title, and the Brodie Breeze Trophy, while simultaneously a pairing of one professional and one amateur will play a best-ball format for the New Zealand Open Pro-Am Championship.

The field will be split across the two courses for the first round with all players alternating to the other course for the second round.

After the second round the top 60 plus ties in the main tournament will continue to the final two rounds.

For the Pro-Am teams, the top 40 pairings will progress to compete in round three, before a third-round cut will see the top 10 Pro-Am teams progress to the final round.

Last year young Indonesian golfer Jonathan Wijono completed a memorable week, signing for a 68 to finish in a tie for 34th, which helped him and amateur partner Jubilant Harmidy, now an Asian Tour board member, win the Pro-Am.